Chapter 21

Nico's POV

Nico woke up spluttering, the water that had been dumped on him running down his nose. Percy and Will were standing over him, looking worried.

"What happened?" he asked. Will held up a metal dart that was stained with blood on the tip.

"Sleeping spell." he told him. "Like the type everyone gets from the Hecate cabin."

"Blackjack and Mrs. O'Leary brought you here." Percy said. "Blackjack told me that they found you passed out by Zeus' Fist."

"Where's Sapphire?"

Percy and Will looked at each other and Nico sat bolt upright.

"Where is my sister?" he asked.

"She's still somewhere in the woods." Percy assured him. "Somewhere past the Ant Hill, I can hear them." Nico immediately jumped out of bed, causing Percy to step back and crash into a cupboard.

"I'm going after her." he announced.

"Hold on! Annabeth and Piper are trying to see where she is right now. That way we can all go, without wasting time wandering around the woods."

Nico opened his mouth to say that he'd be able to sense Sapphire wherever she was, but then he realized that, probably thanks to the sleeping spell, he currently wasn't even able to sense Percy and Will, who were right in front of him.

"What about Jason and Leo? Have they-Agh!" Nico cut himself off with a pained shout. The back of his neck felt like there was a white-hot brand being driven into it. He gritted his teeth. Suddenly, he couldn't see the room in the infirmary anymore. What he did see was a boy standing in front of a swath of dead trees. His broken nose and bandaged hand made his identity obvious. He advanced and drew back his good hand to deliver a slap to Nico, which he didn't feel.

Nico's vision went black and when he blinked he found himself staring at the infirmary floor. Thanks to the vision, he hadn't even noticed when his legs gave way.

"Nico! Are you alright?" Percy and Will helped him stand, both of them with looks of concern on their faces.

"I know where she is." Nico announced. "In the Dead Woods."

Will and Percy both grimaced, though Will's expression was more pained than the son of Poseidon's. The Dead Woods was an area of the woods near the camp boarders that had somehow become the home of Python sometime between the Battle of the Labyrinth and the end of the war with Gaea, or, at least that was Chiron's theory. No-one had actually encountered the giant evil snake until the summer after the Giant War when, for a still unknown reason, it started eating dryads. That resulted in all of the dryads in its part of the woods fleeing their trees and planting new seedlings elsewhere. Will had led an army of his siblings from both the Greek and Roman sides to kill Python. They had succeeded but the dryads still refused to return, leaving that part of the forest dead. The lack of nature spirits, plus the fact that five children of Apollo had died fighting the snake, meant that the Dead Woods was considered an almost more unlucky place than Zeus' Fist.

In retrospect, they should have figured that a certain kidnapping disgraced son of Ares would make his base there.

"The Dead Woods is, like, a mile wide. We'd have to be crazy lucky to find her before dark." Percy said. Nico then told him who he'd seen in his vision and the son of Poseidon blanched.

"I'm going now." Nico said. "Whether you guys come with or not."

"I'll come with you." Will said at once. "I studied that area for ages, maybe it'll help."

Percy sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, causing it to stand on end. "I'll get the others. Meet you at the tree line in five."

"You'd better." Nico told him. "Or the only thing you'll be able to do is pray."

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Still Nico's POV

They'd just started combing the Dead Woods when they saw the deer. It stepped directly into their path with its golden antlers shining in the sunlight. Everyone raised their weapons as soon as they saw movement, and Percy and Nico tightened their grips on their swords when they saw the innocent-looking animal.

"The Ceryneian Hind!" Annabeth whispered in awe. Nico relaxed slightly.

"Is it going to attack us?" Percy asked worriedly. Nico successfully resisted the urge to laugh at him, though he did make a good point. Most creatures in their world would attack demigods, no questions asked.

"No you Seaweed Brain! It's Artemis' sacred animal."

"That's not a good reason." Percy pointed out. "Ares' sacred animal loved attacking us."

The deer looked straight at each of them and then started walking deliberately into the trees.

"It wants us to follow it." Leo deduced. Without waiting for any of the others, he walked through the deserted forest after the deer. Nico followed him. He heard Annabeth mutter something about going ahead without a plan but could tell from the footfalls that she, Percy, Will, Jason, and Piper were all coming with them.

The deer led them through the dead trees, occasionally pausing to wait for them when they got stuck behind particularly tricky terrain. Will usually called out warnings so that they could avoid the worst places, like a wooded hill that turned into a 90˚ drop.

It wasn't the hardest hike the demigods had even done, but it wasn't the easiest either. Nico wished that Percy had gotten Mrs. O'Leary to come but, like most sane creatures, the hellhound avoided the Dead Woods.

After about an hour of hiking, Jason decided to fly above the trees to see if he could spot where the deer was leading them. The other six kept going while he flew through the air. He suddenly let out a wordless shout and dove down into the trees about fifty feet ahead of them. They looked at each other.

"The ground is pretty flat up ahead." Will said. Without another word they hurried to help the son of Jupiter. When they saw him he was standing beside a brown wolf with his sword pointed at the throat of the boy the wolf was standing on top of. A silver wolf was laying a few feet in front of a tree behind them, looking around alertly. The deer nodded to them, and then bounded away into the woods.

The boy on the ground with Jason's sword and a wolf's teeth at his throat was none other than Jeremy Asher. Curled up into a ball behind the sliver wolf with cut ropes scattered around her was Sapphire. Nico caught a glimpse of his sister's face and did not at all like what he saw. The only other time he'd seen that particular expression on her face was during the dream that she had created on the face of her younger self.

Definitely not a good thing.

"Nice of you to show up!" Jason joked over his shoulder.

"Not all of us can fly." Piper reminded him. Nico and Leo both started walking over to Sapphire but Annabeth stopped them.

"Piper and I will take care of her." she told them.

"Why?" Leo asked. Nico gave Annabeth a weak glare.

Annabeth pointed to the wolf that was guarding Sapphire. "Tell me that doesn't look familiar." Leo looked carefully at the wolf. Nico didn't have to.

"The Hunter's wolves." he muttered. Annabeth nodded. Leo sighed.

"Go lock up that malin." Piper told them. Nico didn't speak French, so he assumed she was describing Asher in a really unflattering way. At least, he hoped she was.

"Auxiliator tuus frater agam gratias." Jason said to the brown wolf after the four guys had surrounded Asher. The wolf stepped back, allowing Leo to sit Asher up and cuff his hands behind his back.

"You have the right to remain silent." Leo said harshly. "Anything you say can and will be used against you."

"In other words, keep your mouth shut." Nico snapped. "Or else."

Asher laughed. He actually laughed, making all of the boys glare at him. Just for interest's sake, the scariest glares were Nico's death glare and Jason's wolf glare, which was only scarier than Percy's because he still had his sword pointed at Asher's throat.

"What are you gonna do?" Asher taunted. "Hit me? Have your parents smite me?"

"That could be arranged." Will muttered. Asher laughed again, more harshly this time.

"The gods are weak." he spat. "They didn't even have the power to find me!" Now, where had they heard that before? Nico was sure that if they had another evil Luke on their hands, Annabeth would jump way ahead of himself in the 'taking a sword to the traitor' line. He flicked his fingers and a shadow gag twisted itself around Asher's mouth, hopefully causing him to choke.

"I warned you."

Annabeth walked up to them with Piper and Sapphire far behind her. Piper was whispering to Sapphire, probably using charmspeak that they didn't want affecting the rest of the group. Sometime between Leo handcuffing Asher, and Nico putting a gag on him, the two wolves had fallen back, though they still seemed to be keeping an eye on things.

"We're ready to go." Annabeth said. "You?" Leo hoisted Asher to his feet and Percy added Riptide to the weapons pointed at the son of Ares. Also on that list was Nico's sword, an arrow from Will, and a flat-bladed screwdriver from Leo.

"Ready." Percy replied. They started walking, but then Nico stopped them.

"I'll shadow travel us." he announced. "It'll be quicker." While he spoke he looked at Will, challenging him to disagree. Will nodded to say that he was clear to do his 'Underworld-y stuff'.

Percy and Annabeth exchanged looks. "OK." Annabeth said at last.

"Where to?" Leo asked. Nico concentrated and starting wrapping the shadows around them. Luckily, he was now able to transport other people without having to have physical contact with them. Jason and Leo grabbed hold of Asher to make sure he didn't get away after they landed.

"Big House." Nico replied. "Brace yourselves."

He saw Piper start supporting Sapphire just before they started rushing though the shadows. One skin-peeling ride later they arrived on the Big House porch.

"What's this?" Mr. D asked in a bored voice. "You're interrupting our game." Of course they were. Asher gurgled something. Sapphire almost collapsed onto the porch but was caught just in time by Piper.

"Oh my." Chrion said when he caught sight of the states of Asher and Sapphire. Then he spoke to Annabeth. "I assume this wasn't part of the plan." Annabeth shrugged helplessly.

"Leo, Jason, please lock up Mr. Asher in the cellar." Chrion ordered. "Leo, if you wish there are some metal bars and things that you could use to create a cage. Don't take too long." Jason and Leo nodded and escorted Asher into the building. "Piper, Will, take Sapphire to one of the guest rooms. Will can stay with her while we talk."

"Chiron, maybe Piper should…" Annabeth was interrupted by the two wolves nosing their way past her and standing in front of Chiron.

"Oh." Mr. D said in surprise when he saw them. The wolves looked at Chiron, who nodded after a moment.

"I see." he said. "Annabeth, Sapphire will be alright with Will. These two will make sure." Nico hadn't intended to bring the wolves with them when they traveled, in fact, he was quite sure that he hadn't. Then again, they had been protecting a child of Hades which was enough of a reason to suspect that they were not mortal in origin. Nico joined Annabeth in eyeing the wolves and he could have sworn the brown one winked at him.

He was probably just tired.

Piper and Will took Sapphire inside and the wolves followed. Chiron then told Mr. D that he had stuff to take care of that was of greater importance than their pinochle game. Mr. D sighed and muttered that he could play solitaire. The rest of them went inside and sat around the ping-pong table.

There was a lot that they had to talk about.

A/n: Happy Easter everyone! Long weekend for us so I managed to get this chapter done. It didn't actually go where I planned (I was going to include the daughter of Nyx from the Capture the Flag game), but it ended the right time.

Hopefully this isn't complaining but if everyone who has read this story left just one review then the review number up there would be over 100, which would be cool.

Enjoy your holiday, if you're getting one!

-Cynder2013